Bill Hemmer's morning show, America's Newsroom, is supposedly a "fair & balanced" "news" program. But, like the Fox "opinion" shows, which aren't beholden to the Fox credo, Hemmer's show is platform for more Fox lies and propaganda. Such was the case last Friday when Hemmer and Fox's favorite anti-Muslim Muslim, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, pushed the right wing lie that Islamic leaders did not condemn the Charlie Hebdo killings. And in so doing, they underscored religious scholar Reza Aslan's recent comment that anybody who advances this lie, "doesn't own Google!"

For those who aren't familiar with Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, he heads The American Islamic Forum for Democracy which sounds benign but is actually an organization which promotes the idea, validated on Fox, that "America is at war with theocratic Muslim despots who seek the imposition of sharia and don’t believe in the equality of all before the law, blind to faith." His appearances on Fox serve as a platform for him to denounce mainstream Islamic organizations as subversive and anti-American. Alleged newsman Hemmer brought in Jasser, during Fox's relentless attacks on the so called Ground Zero Mosque, to show that, see, even Muslims oppose the mosque. So it was no surprise that Jasser was brought in to provide his anti-Islamic spin to the Charlie Hedbo killings.

The beginning of Friday's segment began with a summary of the recent events in France. After Jasser spoke about prison radicalization leading to the type of killings experienced in France, Bill Hemmer got straight to the agitprop: Speaking very dramatically, he asked "where are the prominent Muslim leaders saying that this must stop and the reform has to begin now." Jasser criticized Muslims for "saying the right thing" on the day of a terrorist attack - but then returning to "being victims." (Oh, the irony - this said on a network that constantly hosts victimized Christians!) He criticized Muslims for "not doing the hard work of reform" and accused the American Muslim community of not stepping up to the plate by not identifying these acts as "Islamic" terrorism.

Hemmer tossed Jasser a propaganda talking point with the question of whether Jasser sees this "as a nudge in that direction or is it going the other way." Jasser said, surprise, surprise, that "it's going the other way." Hemmer helped the further frame the propaganda: "It's becoming more hardened is what you're saying." Jasser responded "absolutely." An Iraq war supporter, Jasser exposed his neocon stripes when he blathered about how "American Exceptionalism" is no longer a threat to Russia, China, and Islamic countries because of the "withdrawal" of American "liberty." (Right, things were awesome in Iraq before we left!) He assert that Muslim leaders don't want people to be free and that the real enemy is "political Islam."  While he acknowledged that not all terrorists are Muslims, the vast majority of today's terrorism is Muslim. (Be scared!). He ended with the exhortation for America to wake up to the dangers of "Islamopatriotism" and threw in a reference to Nidal Hasan as a "vicious, radical threat." (Be scared!)

So according to Hemmer, on January 9th, Islamic weren't speaking out. Really?  If Hemmer used the Google, he might have found out that these Muslim individuals and groups, among others, who did speak out:

• CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations
• Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA Spokesperson Qasim
• Muslim Council of Britain
• French Muslim Council (CFCM):
• Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF):
• Arab League
• Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association:
• Muslim Advisory Council to the NYPD
• Birmingham [Alabama] Islamic Society:
• Dalil Boubakeur, Imam at the mosque of Paris

These are just 10 examples in a list of 45. 

Addendum: The Fox video propaganda title asks "Where is the outcry from Muslim leaders condemning these attacks?" The Fox worker bees who think up clever propaganda titles for the Fox videos, like Hemmer, must also be unfamiliar with Google!